Sir Charles Tegart designed the forts in 1938 based on his experiences in the Indian insurgency. They were built of reinforced concrete with water systems that would allow them to withstand a month-long siege.[3] Dozens of the structures were built according to the same basic plan, along the so-called "Tegart's wall" of the northern border with Lebanon and Syria, and at strategic intersections in the interior of Palestine.

Many of them can still be seen in Israel today, and continue to be used as police stations[3] and jails.[4] One houses Camp 1391 prison for "high-risk" prisoners.[5]

The fort in Ramallah, known as The Mukataa, used as Yasser Arafat's Presidential Headquarters, was damaged by Israeli forces in Operation Defensive Shield and the later siege, was later restored and added to under President Mahmoud Abbas, obscuring the lines of the original British structure.